from the mill

Perfectly timed in its arrival this week, this box of last fall's shearing came back from the mill. In the very same week that we did spring shearing, which makes it all feel like instant gratification, really. It was an exciting box to open - this is the first time I've had any of our fiber made into yarn at the mill, and that's definitely something I'll be doing more of in the future. The brown and grey (Cinnamon and Emily) yarn is 100% shetland and all spun in a sport-weight yarn. I'm thinking a cardigan or two? And the lighter color is an experiment I tried with a friend, blending her mohair with my shetland and adding a bit of alpaca for good measure. That lot is going to be so much fun to play with in the dye pot, I am certain of it (I did a little bit with the elderberries last week). And the rest, well the rest is roving, made into 'bumps' which is such a great and compact way for them to be stored. A girl can only handle so much roving, I'm discovering. Even with all the experimenting and freedom in using it in the house (Adelaide has taken full advantage of that offer!), it's still a great deal of fiber. And I'm realizing just how much roving it is likely that I'll spin in this season of my life. Two fleeces a year? Maybe that! But when I'm getting twenty four back from the mill a year (twelve sheep, twice a year shearing), well you can see how that math works out! Short of stuffing it into the walls as insulation to replace the hundred year old newspaper (not a bad idea), I'm eager to start sharing some of this fiber with others. I'm almost there - tweaking and adjusting the way I process it and trying to understand as much as I can about this wool from our backyard. The wool from the sheep we love so much, coming back as yarn ready for my hands to get knitting with! It's so dreamy to walk by this pile of fiber and know that these are our sheep - that I can tell which wool came from which girl. Rewarding and exciting, this process is!

Comments

from the mill

Perfectly timed in its arrival this week, this box of last fall's shearing came back from the mill. In the very same week that we did spring shearing, which makes it all feel like instant gratification, really. It was an exciting box to open - this is the first time I've had any of our fiber made into yarn at the mill, and that's definitely something I'll be doing more of in the future. The brown and grey (Cinnamon and Emily) yarn is 100% shetland and all spun in a sport-weight yarn. I'm thinking a cardigan or two? And the lighter color is an experiment I tried with a friend, blending her mohair with my shetland and adding a bit of alpaca for good measure. That lot is going to be so much fun to play with in the dye pot, I am certain of it (I did a little bit with the elderberries last week). And the rest, well the rest is roving, made into 'bumps' which is such a great and compact way for them to be stored. A girl can only handle so much roving, I'm discovering. Even with all the experimenting and freedom in using it in the house (Adelaide has taken full advantage of that offer!), it's still a great deal of fiber. And I'm realizing just how much roving it is likely that I'll spin in this season of my life. Two fleeces a year? Maybe that! But when I'm getting twenty four back from the mill a year (twelve sheep, twice a year shearing), well you can see how that math works out! Short of stuffing it into the walls as insulation to replace the hundred year old newspaper (not a bad idea), I'm eager to start sharing some of this fiber with others. I'm almost there - tweaking and adjusting the way I process it and trying to understand as much as I can about this wool from our backyard. The wool from the sheep we love so much, coming back as yarn ready for my hands to get knitting with! It's so dreamy to walk by this pile of fiber and know that these are our sheep - that I can tell which wool came from which girl. Rewarding and exciting, this process is!

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Greetings! I'm Amanda Blake Soule - mother of five, author of three books on family creativity, and editor-in-chief of Taproot Magazine. I live with my family in an old farmhouse in Western Maine where we raise animals, grow vegetables and make lots of things. I write about it all here on the blog. Thank you for visiting!